Robert Morgenthau

Robert Morgenthau (31 July 1919-) was the New York County District Attorney from 1 January 1975 to 31 December 2009, succeeding Richard Kuh and preceding Cyrus Vance Jr..

Biography
Robert Morgenthau was born in New York City, New York on 31 July 1919 to a prominent family of Jews who had emigrated from Baden in 1866; he was the son of Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr.. Morgenthau served as a Lieutenant Commander of the US Navy during World War II, serving aboard destroyers in the Mediterranean and the Pacific. In 1961, after 12 years of practicing corporate law, he was appointed US Attorney for the Southern District of New York by President John F. Kennedy, serving from 1961 to 1962 and from 1962 to 1970, taking a break for a failed run for Governor. He established a special unit to investigate securities fraud and bribery, and he resisted public pressures from Richard Nixon's administration to resign. He was eventually forced out of office at the end of 1969, and he served as Deputy Mayor under John Lindsay and launched another failed gubernatorial bid in 1970. In 1974, he was elected New York County District Attorney, and he launched a dogged pursuit of white-collar crime. He served until 2009, when he retired, and he endorsed his successor Cyrus Vance Jr..